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index.cpd

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Item Description

Title

Sports

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image/jpeg

File Name

yearb_1992_075.jpg

Transcript

Coach Jenkins keeps
FOCUS
i
n the glass walled football department
office, red streamers hung and photos of
past football teams dotted the walls. Plants
hung from the ceiling and the practice field
could be veiwed out the windows. Next to
the door to Coach Jenkins' office hung a
large photo of the Aloha Bowl team of 1988.
Jenkins' office remained closed to
all but a hand selected few, keeping his
football plays, but not his philosophies, a
secret.
He was dedicated to developing
well rounded men
through football. He
emphasised the performance of his players both on and off the
field. It was important
that his players were
not only hard-hitting
on the football field,
on his players, game
field, as a team member, a student, and a
member of the community.
Glen Cope, executive assistant to
Jenkins said/The players need attention.
Unlike other head coaches, 'Jinks' works
closely with the players. Jenks keeps the
focus on graduation and follows the academic progress of the players. He stresses
the importance of developing productive
people who are able to tackle a profession/'
Cope said.
"Glen organizes my day so I can
better utilize my time.
He is one of the many
people who help put
1 the team on the field."
(It was also Cope's
idea to sound off the
air raid siren for every
point the Coog's
photo by Thomas Nguyen SCOre.)
they hit the books hard as well.
Jenkins replaced Jack Pardee, who
became head coach of the Houston Oilers,
in 1990. "I was elevated to the position of
head coach because of my Run and Shoot
offense, however, it's important for me to
keep in touch with the players," Jenkins
said.
"Not every player is an AU-Ameri-
can or a Heisman Trophy winner," Jenkins
said. "As head coach, my main concern is
that these young men have opportunities
and options outside of football." When
Jenkins became head coach, the athletic
acedemic department was loosely run. He
put together a support team coordinating
the academic career of the players with that
of their football careers.
"We have morning and evening
study hours, and class attendance is carefully monitored," Jenkins said. The athletes
had a big responsibility both on and off the
Jenkins said, "I start my day
at 5 a.m. organizing my work, at 5:30,1 meet
with the graduate and student assistants."
He discusses with the assistant coordinator
about the student athletes' standings, and
then forces the players to get up for the
team's seven o'clock meeting.'Tts not unusual for me to spend 18 hours a day working," he said.
"I received many phone calls from
schools and organizations requesting personal appearances by members of the team,
so I organized the Second Effort Organization," Jenkins said. The entire football team
did voluntary community service for
Jenkins' group. They made speeches, visited many area schools, and worked the
crowd at the Ronald McDonald House,
Texas Children's Hospital and other institutions.
At 23, he wrote a book on football
techniques titled, Into the Open Field. He
has been asked repeatedly to write
another book on offense, but he was
not interested. He said, "I love writing,
but I will leave it for my retirement." "I
will write when I retire. Now I am
interested in training young men."
Using the formation of Glen
Ellison's 'lonesome polecat' offense
Jenkins developed the 'run and shoot',
or as he has modified it, the Multiple
Adjusting Passing Offense (MAPO),
it utilized four wide receivers and one
running back, different from the 'normal' set up of two wide receivers and
two or more running backs.
Jenkins describes, "It is opposite of 'the old school' theory of establishing a running game first and then
the passing game. "Some of the old
cliches are thrown out with the Run
and Shoot offense, 'You can't win consistently and throw the ball/ or 'time
of possession is what leads to victory/
We have proved that run and shoot
works," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said, "There is much
talk about defending against the run
and shoot offense. On paper I don't
see much to worry about. We can face
a team with a strong defense one week
and win, then lose the following
week. One dominating athlete can
make all the difference. Our own execution is what's important." -Merrill
Baum
Sports